So this is Hyrule
by thecrazyfanficcer
Summary: [ONESHOT] Link takes Saria on a tour of Hyrule.


**Hiya! This is a Link and Saria fanfic that takes place some time after Ocarina of Time, when Link has gone back to being a kid again. All rights belong to Shigeru Miyamoto and not me, remember.**

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"_Saria. I see thou hast come to my side." There was a faint smile on the great Deku Tree's face as he looked down at the small, green-haired Kokiri._

"_I have," she replied with a humble bow of the head. "Why hath thou summoned me?" she continued, using the archaic speech she could now speak as easily as she knew the twists and turns of the Lost Woods which she so often visited. _

"_I have summoned thee, for today, a hero was found in Hyrule Field," began the Deku Tree, with a sound that was much akin to a sigh. "He is nought but a child, born to Calaria and Malwen of northern Hyrule. _

"_These past months have been filled with hunger and strife; the first Gerudo male born into the tribe for over a century, Ganondorf, has appeared." Again, the sighing sound resonated from the great mouth. "He has terrorized the peaceful Hylians, threatening to kill their young. Wanting to bring their fellow Hylians to salvation, Calaria and Malwen organized a way to free from Ganondorf's clutches, but they were caught and killed by the dark one himself." He looked over at Saria. "Their child, who I shall let you name, was rescued from the carnage by one of my Goron scouts, near Death Mountain. I know he is the boy mentioned in prophecy, Hero of Time to all Hyrule. Until the child is old enough, I will let him live in Kokiri Forest, as one of our own. He shall not know his true identity before then. Thou shalt teach him what thou, as a Kokiri and the Sage of the Forest, know, in order to save the land. And when his adventure comes to an end, the curse on thou shall be lifted; thou will not die should you ever leave the forest."_

_Saria had suspected something like this, but she was still mildly surprised when, soon after his speech had ended, the Deku Tree paused, looking at her with concerned, wise eyes for a moment, as if he were scrutinizing her very soul. A fear was dancing in the back of her mind, and yet… And yet, the Deku Tree was the creator. Her father. She was sure he would not do anything to harm her, the Kokiri, or this new, tiny Hylian, who appeared, propped against his wide wooden roots. She bent down and took the child, whose hair was the exact same shade of orange-blond of her fellow Kokir. _

_Yet, Saria knew, the child could never be mistaken for one. _

_Presently, the child awoke and gave a tiny giggle; for Hero of Time and saviour of Hyrule, he sure looked mischievous. She crooned softly and streaked back a lock of that wheat-coloured hair – his eyes opened, great big blue eyes that fit his face and disposition and yet surprised her anyway. She looked up at the great Deku Tree, a gentle gleam in her eyes._

"_I shall care for this child, hither in the Kokiri Forest, for he is the one and only Hero of Time. I shall call him Link." She hugged the young Link to her chest and looked up once more, at the great Deku Tree, whose wizened, wooden features cracked into a small smile._

"_Well done, Saria, my child, Sage of the Forest. Guide him before his journey and when he leaves, shed no tears, for he shall return again someday."_

Link sighed and looked up at the sky.

Drizzle-gray rain clouds had moved in and were currently scudding across the skies, blocking out the sun's bright light with their own dismal touch. The rain clouds cast dark shadows over Hyrule; everything was thrown into relief. The pale shadows were outlining corners and sharp edges, giving everything a haunted, downcast look. This was going to be a big one, all right.

Link, blocking his eyes with one hand, stared up at clouds. The sun was nowhere in sight because they had covered it, drifting across the sky, stormy and foreboding. Link began quickly trotting in a southerly direction, placing one hand unconsciously on the hilt of his Kokiri Sword, sheathed behind his wooden Deku Shield as always. Hylian storms were usually not good things.

Sure enough, within a matter of minutes, Hyrule Field was deserted. The doors of the houses in Kakariko Village had all been shut tight and bolted, the drawbridge from Hyrule Castle Town drawn even though it was only noon. Link began to run, his boots clumping on the soft green grass the only sound as he pelted away from the storm that was to come.

In his speed, Link tripped over a rock that lay, protruding, in his pathway and went toppling down. His head was submerged under a layer of grass; with a breath, he got up and hightailed toward Kokiri Forest - he was short, but also aided by battle-hardened legs.

The small village at the furthermost edges of Hyrule, Kokiri Forest, was inhabited by the Kokiri, a peaceful, playful elven race who never grew older, no matter how much time passed. Link had grown up among the gentle, winding river that snaked between the houses and small homes of the Kokiri, built from the stumps of dead trees. He had lived there before this adventure that had changed his life – the adventure which had taken him seven years into the future and back again.

Link had always pondered since his defeat of the evil Lord Ganondorf, the only male born into the Gerudo tribe for a century, what would happen next. He had figured he would be a loner, a wanderer who belonged to neither to the land, nor the sea, nor the sky. But - as fate would have it - he had been wandering around the field shortly after his adventure. And now there was this storm to contend with.

That still didn't explain why he was heading toward the forest, but Link didn't care. As if to prove his point, thunder rumbled and a fork of lightning streaked toward the ground, blinding his eyes for a minute and somehow causing him to stumble directly past the Deku Baba-ridden pathway and into Kokiri Forest. He ploughed on, head banging on something, hazy images clouding his vision, mind obscure and faraway, thoughts vague and listless...

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"Link! Are you all right?"

"I think so," he mumbled, balling his hands into fists so that he could sit up on the hay-filled cloth mattress. His childhood friend, the green-haired Saria, was peering down at him from above the mattress, care and tenderness in her eyes and worry in her voice. "What happened?"

"You hit your head against a rock and passed out," Saria explained. "I found you in the river this morning. You must have fallen into it."

"The river," Link repeated in surprise, and chuckled. "There was a storm, I started running blindly for no good reason, hit my head on a stone and fell into the river." He smiled, blue eyes literally glowing. "Now why did I do that for?"

"You made a mistake." Saria was laughing as well as she perched on a stool carved out of a moss-swathed log across from him. She swung her legs, reaching into her pocket.

She pulled out her Friendship Ocarina, an exact replica of the one she had given Link quite a ways back. Saria held it to her lips now, and the most beautiful, piping, flutelike sounds in the land of Hyrule and beyond floated out, drifting gently from the real world to the soft folds of his subconscious. Link leaned back in the cloth mattress and listened to them, their soft melody resonating softly inside his head.

Finally the music faded into the night and Saria put away her ocarina. Link smiled at her from his depths in the mattress, and their eyes met. Wordlessly, she gestured to him; without second thoughts, Link slid out of the makeshift bed and went trotting after her.

Saria was sitting on a stump outside her house when he found her. Her left leg was swinging as she softly hummed the Minuet of Forest, a song which she had taught Link on his Ocarina of Time some time past. Now, it seemed like such a long time - in reality, though, it had only been a few months.

"I always wanted to see Hyrule," Saria began wistfully without turning around. "What's it like?"

"Big," Link replied as he made his way forward, to perch on the stump with her. "Big and beautiful."

For a moment they were just two children, in awe of the sunrise, their faces bathed in the sun's golden light, rather than one eternal Kokiri, Sage of the Forest, and Hero of Time. Then, the moment took an end; the magic of the sunrise had evaporated, but a new kind of magic had taken its place. The magic of Hyrule.

Saria turned to Link, eyes sparkling in the sunlight. "Hyrule," she whispered in echo. "It's big and beautiful, and yet the only part of it I've seen so far is the Temple of Time." Her eyes were shimmering now, shining and radiant, like melting, liquid, glowing sapphires. "I want to see it, Link." Her voice was slightly hoarse in excitement, though her eyes were far brighter than ever before.

"Want to see what?" asked Link, though he knew perfectly well what.

"I want to see Hyrule. I want to feel the soft caress of the Hylian breeze on my cheek. I want to meet Zoras, Gorons, Gerudos... I want to swim in Hylia Lake, feeling its cool sapphire-blue waters press gently against my skin. I want to giggle and scream in happy astonishment as Poes dip and swirl around the star-studded midnight sky above Dampé's graveyard." She was about to go on, of course, but Link stopped her.

"All right, all right, we'll see Hyrule," he laughed, placing one hand on her left wrist, which had been gesticulating in tune with her other arm while she had been speaking. Saria turned incredulous eyes on Link, a smile curling her features. She said nothing, but it was plain to see the question just dancing in her deep, cheerful eyes: _We're really going to explore Hyrule?_

Link, who had correctly interpreted the look, could not conceal his grin. "Yes, Saria," he replied, a mischievous flame dancing in his own bright blue eyes. "We're really going to explore Hyrule."

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Saria giggled happily and darted across the small bridge that led to Hyrule, her figure a massed blur of green that veritably streaked across the wooden slats. Her eyes were glowing yet again, and a smile changed her elven countenance into a thing of young beauty.

Link noted all this in a corner of his mind, but is conscious self only registered a forest-green blur which darted across the bridge. He scampered after her, likewise – their expressions were alike down to the enchanted smile and excited demeanour. (Saria, naturally, was more excited than he was.)

Link, of course, being the person he happened to be, was usually mischievous and fun-loving. He could be serious when he wanted to be – and yet, now he was drowning in a torrent of feeling. It was a strange, unknowable feeling… And yet, he had felt it before… Quite a bit when he talked with his friend Malon and then again, less this time, with Princess Zelda… And here it was again, causing him to think crazy things…

But by the time Link had crossed the bridge, the feeling had gone.

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"Hyrule Field," Link declared, lifting up one hand. "The center point of the whole country."

Saria nodded, giggling, and concentrated those sapphires of hers on the rolling green plain around them. In the distance, a small town had been built in front of Hyrule Castle: the marketplace. A little closer to where they stood, four farm-type structures were perched on the rolling green, flower-specked Hylian plain. They were the four buildings of Lon Lon Ranch: the house, the stable, the Cucco coop, and the storage shed. There was, naturally, a corral outside. Perched on a stony uprise, the corral was surrounded by a tall steel-tipped wooden fence.

"That's Lon Lon Ranch." Link vaguely indicated the four buildings on the outcropping. "My friend Malon lives there. Do you want to go take a look?"

He needn't have asked; Saria was already off and running.

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When he finally managed to slow her down and steer her in the exact direction, a panting Link appeared beside Saria. He was a little taller than her, but the Kokiri had bountiful enthusiasm in comparison to Hyrule's only Hero of Time. Whereas Link was puffing and dragging along with a leaden step, Saria was the exact opposite: bright and bouncy.

Her mood perfectly matched the scenery around them. It was a beautiful day, with the sun peeping teasingly out from between the clouds. Its light was spilling softly onto the children's faces, making them shine with an earthly radiance. Saria trotted along until she materialized – well, that was how it seemed from Link's position, lower down on the rock-ridden uprise, anyway – in front of the peaceful dwelling of Lon Lon Ranch.

In an instant, the Kokiri girl had bounded forth and was reaching one hand for the door, but she stopped herself midway to look questioningly back at Link.

"Should I?" Saria asked, and her friend nodded in reply.

"Of course," he answered with a genuine, mischief-filled grin, "Malon'll be really happy to see you."

Overjoyed, Saria extended her arm toward the door and rapped twice on the smooth wood. She waited a few long, agonizing seconds, but to no avail. The house was clearly deserted.

She pondered this for a moment, then turned to Link. "Let's try the corral," Saria suggested to her friend. "Maybe she's with the horses."

Link's eyes glowed oddly as he answered. "Maybe you're right."

So behind the dwelling they trekked to, and sure enough discovered Malon, Link's redheaded friend. She was singing her mother's song softly as she stood in the middle of the field. Lon Lon Ranch's peaceable cows were grazing a bit off in the distance, swaying rhythmically as they listened to the farm girl's melodious voice. The horses, however, were a different sight altogether. They were a thick, multicoloured mass circulating around Malon, but she didn't seem to mind. She was patting one muzzle one second and stroking another one's back the next instant.

Malon's eyes flicked open at the sounds of their approach. The song faded into the distance, but the horses continued milling around the seemingly small figure in their midst. "Hey, fairy boy!" Malon called to Link now. "You brought one of your fairy friends over this time?"

"Actually, I did," Link replied without the slightest trace of hesitation. That weird mischievous light was in his eyes again. He gestured to the Sage of the Forest. "This is Saria."

Malon gave one last pat on the mane of a particularly pretty coal-black mare before heading over to the other two, sticking out her hand. "I'm Malon."

Link waited patiently while the two girls stood exchanging pleasantries. They made no move to include him in the conversation, so he strolled over the emerald-green grass to his favourite horse.

"Hey, Epona," Link murmured as he neared the roan-coloured mare, passing one hand through her shock of white mane-hair. "How's it been goin' since I left you?"

In reply, the horse nuzzled him with her snout and whinnied happily from deep in her throat. Link grinned back at patted her gently. She'd been a great friend, accompanying him in the Hyrule of the future. It was great to see her again and, even if the present Epona didn't remember him, her forgotten animosity had disappeared; perhaps she was remembering the things of a fate that was now secured never to come again. After a few minutes stroking her roan-red hide and snow-white mane, Link allowed his hand to fall from her flank.

"I've brought along someone, Epona," he said softly to her. "Do you know Saria?"

The horse took one glance at Link's hand, extended toward his green-haired friend, and shook her muzzle with a snort. It was as if she were answering, "How could I know a person like that?" to his question. Link smiled, gave her one last pat behind the ears, where she liked it best, and bade her goodbye. Epona snorted again as she watched him, bright white tail fanning in and out; the wind breezing by made her look like the spirited mare she was, alone in the meadow.

When he caught up with the farm and Kokiri girls, Malon was talking excitedly to Saria. By the looks of it, Link judged, she wanted to show her newfound friend something from the stables – he could see that Malon was flinging her hand out in that direction as they chattered away. Within a few seconds, both had streaked off in that direction; he could hear the clumping sound of their boots on the grass.

"Well, what do you think, Epona?" When it became definite that Malon and Saria weren't going to return for at least a little while, Link turned to his former steed with a chuckle. "What do you think those two girls are doing in there?"

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"So where do we go next, Sar?" It was his pet name to her, and he knew she hated it. Sure enough, within seconds a hateful glare had been tossed in his direction.

"I don't like that name, Link," she told her (cough – former – cough) friend; this declaration was accompanied by a regal rotation of torso and crossing arms. "Please don't call me that."

Our hero lifted one eyebrow before answering – go figure (rolls eyes). "All right, all right, lay it easy on me," he joked, teasing his friend with what can only be called purposeful mischief – well, those were the first two words that popped into Link's mind, anyway. "So, where do we go?"

In the rush of a second, Saria's former anger dissipated. "I don't know," she replied with a shrug as she turned back around. "You decide."

"Mm… Let's go to the marketplace next to Hyrule Castle," decided Link. Beside him, his traveling companion nodded. "Speaking of which," he went on, "What were you guys doing in the stable?"

She perked up instantly.

"It was amazing," Saria began brightly, her eyes glowing more than ever. "We went to go see the animals. Malon even gave me some milk from the cows." And with that, a bottle of Lon Lon milk appeared in her left hand.

"Drink it." Link smirked mischievously as his own hands disappeared behind his back, indicating with his head the clear, newly-stoppered bottle. "There's nothing in Hyrule as good as Lon Lon milk."

Saria hesitated as she stared at the glass reptacle of homebrought goodness, then nodded and removed the cork stopper before downing its contents in one full swig. Then, she carefully pulled it from her mouth and restoppered the neck, but she seemed uncertain.

"What do I do with the bottle?" she asked anxiously, turning to Link.

"Keep it, of course!" Link burst out laughing as he grinned at his friend. "Use your belt."

It wasn't long before the small glass bottle had been tucked into the belt of Saria's forest-green tunic and the two were crossing Hyrule's smooth greenness of a field to the peaceful marketplace beside Zelda's castle.

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Again Saria and Link spent a wonderful time far from home. Saria was everywhere at once, or so it seemed to Link – one second she was chatting happily with the Happy Mask Salesman in his shop; in the next, she was standing among the Poes floating in old Dampé's graveyard, situated at one end of Kakariko village. This is where we rejoin them at nine o'clock in the evening; nightfall had arrived and the midnight-blue sky was streaked with lilac-coloured clouds. The moon was up and shining; the faces of the old gravekeeper and the guard standing at the gate were basked with an earthly yet radiant light.

Saria stood among the Poes, who were swooping round her like a shower of molten violet-golden comets. The ghosts were casting Saria's face and features into shadow, and yet, she seemed to enjoy it. Their dark forms were liberally cutting across the moon-bright sky, leering with evil, glowing orange eyes. Saria, however, looked enchanted; every time a Poe passed just above one of her raised hands, she let out a cry of delight and a giggle. At one point, a Poe lantern lightly streaked the top of her green hair, and she actually let out a whoop.

Link, who knew that Poes could be both friend and foe, called out to Saria. She turned around and abruptly began trotting over to where he was perched on a broad, pale tombstone. It was an old, moss-grown grave; the fading epitaph had long been overgrown with sparse lichen. Link was swinging his legs as he watched Saria; she had looked enchanted, amazed, appalled, enthralled, enraptured, fixed, flabbergasted, shocked, stunned, astonished, joyous, excited, anxious, joyful, jubilant, triumphant, victorious, and every other related adjective. Yep, that was Saria for you. Plain old Saria, but Link didn't want it any other way.

Her face glowing in moonlight, her figure cast in shadow, her eyes pulsing midnight in the darkness, her upraised hands glowing softly thanks to the golden lantern of the Poe above her, Saria was indeed a shocking sight. She looked at peace with the world, as though she was one with it, as though she was melding with the very roots of nature itself. There was only one word Link could think of at a time like this.

Kokiri.

Saria embodied everything about the Kokiri, from their closeness with nature to their immortality that would keep them living all through time. And, as he also knew, nothing could change that. Saria would always be Saria, there to offer a helping hand and words of kindness as she always had.

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The moon was now fully up in the sky and glowing brighter than ever. Link turned to Saria as she arrived and perched upon the tombstone. "So, what do you think?" His voice was barely a croak, a whisper, on the still night air.

She seated herself beside him, turned away, but it was clear for whom her words were meant for as the shimmering form of her arm, bathed in moonlight and inner radiance, draped across his shoulders. Link smiled quietly to himself and returned the gesture, so that they were caught in an embrace of friendship. Again, Link was flooded with those mysterious feelings, those emotional, powerful feelings, but he knew what it was as her voice echoed through the still night air.

"Hyrule..."

Link smiled back at her. "You know it is."

Saria's smile was still on her face.

"So this is Hyrule."

And it was thanks to him that she was able to see it.


End file.
